NEWTOWN LIBRARY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 131, 29 November 1929, Page 12

NEWTOWN LIBRARY

HALL TO GO

ALTERATIONS IN HAND

CLEAN UP FOR CENTRAL

About eighteen months ago a subcommittee of the- Libraries Committee of the City Council brought down a report advising various alterations and improvements in the city libraries, among which was a proposal that the library space at Newtown should be added to by doing away .with the public hall as a hall and its utilisation for library purposes. This work is now in hand and the hall is being divided up to provide a roomy and brighter children's section and a much-needed storage room. The new arrangement may not be altogether popular with those who lean further towards dancing and entertainment —including electioneering — than library development, but the hall has hardly been a revenue producer to a department which has never been exactly flush, and in any case, it is argued, dance halls and libraries do not fit in well together. There are, moreover, several other halls within quite reasonable distance of the library building, and the additional space is required, particularly for the children's section, for from Newtown the whole of the school library system is administered. With pressure upon space somewhat reduced, no doubt this branch library can be considerably brightened, and that that is needed there is no doubt, for, in common with the Central Library, the interior is rather too depressing for the library spirit to flourish. Later again a considerable expansion of strictly library work should be possible at Newtown, as it is probable that the museum collection, on the upper floor, will bo housed, in the Dominion Museum on Mount Cook, though that is some years ahead yet. The probability is that five out of ten people do not know that there is a city museum at Newtown, and that not more than one out the ten —if that many—have been there, yet there are many valuable and interesting exhibits there, including the collection of birds, animals, and curios presented to the city by Mr. E. W. Petherick in 1905 (the original museum collection), Mr. Yuill's collection of about 1000 birds (mostly New Zealand), very interesting photographic and other records of early Wellington, and so on. From time to time the museum is given a good dusting up, but the patronage accorded 'it does not warrant much expenditure. SPRING CLEANING CENTRAL LIBRARY. The Central • Library, too, is being given a late spring cleaning inside, and not before time, for it is something like twenty years since anything like a thorough painting was given, with the exception of the reading-room, which was taken in hand about a year ago. The exterior, however, was thoroughly cleaned two or three years ago. The arrangements of screens and canvas is allowing the painting to go ahead without interference with library users. The council and the library authorities are hopeful that this painting and distempering will be the last cleaning that will have to be given the old building, for discussions at the committee and the council tables are bringing plans for a new Central Library nearer, though apparently there is still a long way to go before anything definite can be placed before the ratepayers. It now seems probable that the longcontinued crowding in all departments will be relieved by the transferring of possibly the public reading and the children's rooms into the Education Board's building next door. Though this would be anything but the ideal which the Libraries Committee and the Librarian are striving for, it would at least permit of a reasonable expansion, pending the building of a new library, either on the triangle of land between Lower Cuba and Wakefleld streets and Jervois quay, on the block Opposite the present building, or between the Library and the Town Hall. There appears to be a considerable difference of opinion among councillors as to which is the most suitable site. CHILDREN'S AND COMMERCIAL SECTIONS. If the proposed commercial reference library comes into being—and as r.bout £200 of the required £300 from the commercial people, is now subscribed, that seems practically certain—there will be further congestion in the old building. It will not be necessary, however, as some subscribers- appear to think, to close the children's section if the commercial reference room is embarked upon, as a stack room on the upper floor can be cleared out to make room for one or the other. This could at best be regarded as purely a temporary arrangement, for the room is poorly lit The remarkable increase in the number of subscribers noted following the reduction of rates when two or more volumes_ are taken out and also upon the joining together of the lending and the reference departments continues, but not at so fast a rate. It is fast enough, however, to impress one further with the fact that the provision of an adequate Central Library buiWing has become-one of the early major problems for the City Council to consider.